Eschatology of Hope. What is... Redemption of Creation?

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This is truth and love and we get that from Ephesians 4 verse 15 Paul tells us but speaking the truth in love. We are to grow up in all aspects in the end. Who's the head even Christ and Eschatology is one of those aspects that we want to grow up into Christ.

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Let us know that you're watching say hi. We'd love to hear from you. Love to speak to you. We're continuing our series Dan and I on eschatology. It's pretty much going every other week our series right now is eschatology of hope.

Redemption what is the redemption of dot dot dot and our Tim Collard? Good morning. That we're in a series of three right now the redemption of the individual and we've already looked at that one today.

We're going to look at redemption of creation. And next we want to look at redemption of culture and Dan and I have already done a video also on the new heavens and New earth and I'd encourage you to look at those.

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So Dan, good morning. Welcome to you. Thank you for joining me. We're in we're talking about Eschatology and I want to ask you to tell us why it's important. But let me define it again for or maybe somebody who's not familiar eschatology simply means in times or last things so What's been popular in in our generation has been the the left-behind series books movies.

Before that kind of In the last generation you had a book called the late great planet Earth by Hal Lindsey. I'm not I'm not promoting. I'm not promoting. I'm just trying to make connection with with eschatology that big theological word and What people may be familiar with.

The the theology the eschatology that those two books and movies promote is not the one that Dan and I see in Scripture. The the the eschatology that those books and movies promote. Will use another big theological word.

Dispensational pre-millennial ism pre-tribulation rapture. That's where you see those theologies Dan and I see what they call post millennial ism in Scripture. And we want to talk about that this morning.

But why do we want to talk about it? I think the a Popular attitude that I see when I was growing up speaking to folks. Is that well, I know I know you can learn about last things in times from Revelation, but that book is just too hard to understand and It'll all pan out in the end.

Hey Jason, good morning. They say I'm a pan millennialist. It'll all pan out in the end. I don't need to worry about it. But but I'm I'm thankful that that wasn't the attitude with the folks in the Old Testament.

I mean they were looking for Messiah to come.

They.

Maybe we're looking for some of the wrong things, but they were looking for and they They knew where to Where he was going to be born. I mean they knew that information. They had people who studied and knew God's Word.

And so we want to be students with God's Word. We want to listen to him. So Dan, why is studying eschatology important? Why is it not not a good idea to just put it on the back burner?

Yeah, eschatology is important to study because the way that we view what's going to happen in the future determines To some extent what we do in the present. If we think that the world's going to end any moment. We're waiting to be caught up by a rapture.

Our emphasis is going to be on things that are immediate and right in front of our face. It was a fellow named Warren Weir's be in one of his commentaries said that you do not polish the brass on a sinking ship.

Speaking about our culture saying that we don't need to worry about our culture and how we do things so much we need to worry about our personal piety and And taking care of ourselves because the next generation is probably not even going to be here if they are.

They're not going to be here for long. We don't need to worry about culture as much because culture is not going to last it's going to be gone. Obviously that was no he wrote that over 60 years ago. So it's been a little bit a little bit longer than 1988.

There was people who during that time period leading up to 1988. Which was a big year. A lot of folks said that Jesus was coming back in 1988. Rapture hatch.

All right.

A lot of folks leading up to that time period Thought that Jesus was coming that year. They were getting ready to go. They sold their possessions they went into debt maxed out their credit cards and And now is an extreme example, but they they financially ruined themselves for the rest of their lives because of What I view is is a faulty eschatology, whereas if you take an Postmillennial perspective you're going to be more focused on the future realizing that God is going to gradually Take dominion over the earth through the salvation of people through the outworking of those Saints living their lives and a godly manner on the earth.

You take more care for your Should take more care for your culture for the education of your children for building lasting institutions in the world for producing Sustainable economies for people in the church you do all those things as well as worrying about your personal piety and The piety of those in the church that you're a part of.

Now not everybody is consistent. So you'll have people who are Dispensational pre-millennialists who are very involved in their culture. They are involved in politics. They're involved in all sorts of things I would say inconsistently, but that's great.

They see the commands in Scripture to You know be salt and light in the world and they act on it accordingly. But it does have an effect To some degree at least on how we view the world. Do we view it as?

Okay, things are getting worse. So let me prepare more and more for the end or Things are getting worse sin is running its course. This means that Christ is going to put this enemy under his feet and I need to be prepared with the gospel in order to provide a solution to these problems and To show the hope of Christ as the world progresses throughout history.

You'll see Some inconsistencies on both sides, but there is a general worldview application to the study of eschatology.

And it you'll you'll you'll see this. I got some feedback again. Sorry. And I'm trying to remember the name of the the group the conservative right back in the 80s. What what was the what they call themselves?

Moral majority the moral majority. Yeah, that's where you can you may be familiar with with that group of folks that that terminology. Maybe you grew up in in that time period where you had the moral majority and and I would say the majority of those folks probably held to the pre-millennial dispensational view.

Looking for the rapture, but yet they were heavily involved in culture in politics trying to try to make the United States a better place and you know that helped or helped lead to. What a lot of folks do, you know putting the American flag above the cross.

Worried worried a lot about saving America but that's just to talk about the inconsistency that Dan was talking about where he. You preach from the pulpit. Jesus is it could come back tomorrow be ready for the rapture.

But yet during the week where we're trying to save America. It but we want to have a consistent theology a theology that we we see. Not putting into scripture what we wanted to say. But but pulling out from scripture and what we pull out from scripture.

We want to be consistent. We don't want to have hypocrisy in our theology. So that kind of leads us to our topic this morning. What is what is eschatology what is the eschatology of hope redemption of creation.

And the first one of the first verses that I thought of was the Sermon on the Mount. Where Jesus was was speaking to the folks there. Matthew chapter 5 verse 5. He says blessed are the my we were talking about this earlier my 1977 New American Standard says blessed are the gentle.

But your translation may bless it may say blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth and.

A.

Lot of times and I think I think our eschatology Has influence on how we interpret scripture how we read scripture because you'll see you'll hear sermons you'll hear conversations. You'll hear see articles whatever the case may be on the first half of that verse.

We.

Want to focus on that? How to be me. What does it mean to be me? What does meekness look like? How was Jesus me. Jesus was meek and mild so we want to understand what it means to be meek because. That is something that Jesus is saying that we should do we should be meek.

So there's the focus it seems like on the first half of that verse. And we don't really think about the second half where they shall inherit the earth. And there could be many reasons why we don't focus on that second part.

I mean you could turn on the news and say I Get to inherit this. You've got all this Turmoil and you all these bad things happening and anything yourself. I get to inherit. This is this what he's talking about.

So you put eschatology like we were talking about you put eschatology on the back burner. You don't think about it. You're a pan millennialist. It's not important or You you may think now. The the similarities that we have with the other eschatologies the the pre-millennial the all-millennial.

The Bible teaches that there's going to be a new heaven and a new earth the other Eschatologies say all of this is going to happen. Later on the earth is going to to burn up. God is going to make make it all brand-new.

After after the cleansing. So if it's going to happen You know way off in the distant future. Then I don't need to really worry about the second half of that verse. I just need to worry about. The first part the personal piety that Dan was talking about.

That's the part that we want to focus on is the holiness personal piety part of it how to be me but Jesus says blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth and You think about the verse that Dan just talked about.

Why are we commanded to be salt and light? Why do we need to preserve the earth? What it why why should we preserve anything if it's just going if we're going to be taken out of here at any moment and It's all going to be burned up.

Why what are we preserved? It just there's inconsistencies and how our eschatology helps us to When it causes us to interpret scripture that way.

So.

So we're going to inherit the earth. The earth is going to be part of. You're going to have heaven you're going to have earth. And so we can't we can't leave that out and what God is doing here on the earth and that leads me to.

That leads me to Colossians because we want to talk about. Where we get this information the topic redemption of creation. What why is? Why do we need to talk about creation and culture. Why polish why polish the brass as Dan said if the ship's going down.

Why not just worry about personal piety and evangelism? Because we see from Scripture God is doing something. We we don't see that secret rapture taught in the scripture. We see we don't see the Millennium Happening at a later date, you know, if if that secret rapture is not in Scripture.

Then that future millennial time period. We got a we got to come up with something else because that you're kind of waiting on the rapture to happen. So that Jesus can come rain physically here on the earth and during this millennial time period.

But if if they if there's no rapture Bible doesn't teach a secret rapture then We've got to come up with something else. So what do we see we can go to Colossians chapter 1. And we we look at this this explanation of Jesus and and who he is.

And it tells us a Few things about what he's doing if you start in verse 13 for he delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son in whom we have redemption forgiveness of sins and He is the image of the invisible God the firstborn of all creation.

So there The Scriptures bringing in all of creation for by him all things were created. So we're bringing in creation again. All things were created both in the heavens and on the earth. So we're speaking of the the heavenly bodies.

We're speaking of the spiritual realm, you know everything the planets the stars the space dust and we're speaking of the angels and Principalities the invisible things talk about all those things heavens and on earth visible invisible whether thrones dominions or rulers or authorities.

All things have been created by him and for him. That's our God. That's Jesus Christ, and he is before all things and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body the church and he is the beginning the firstborn from the dead so that he himself might come to have first place in everything where it was the father's good pleasure for all the fullness of fullness to dwell in him and through him to reconcile all Things to himself having made peace to the blood of his cross through him I say whether things on earth or things in heaven.

That last verse 20 that last verse is key there through his blood what he did on the cross and raising from the dead. Through what Jesus did the Bible tells us that he is reconciling all things to himself.

That's why we don't just stop with that the first topic that we looked at redemption of the individual Jesus. Jesus work on the cross is More thorough than that it reaches Far greater than just the redemption of the individual.

He is a reconciling all things to himself Through the blood of the cross things on the earth and things in heaven. What do you say that Daniel? Oh.

Man I got a lot to say.

It.

It probably helpful to understand exactly Why. The creation needs to be redeemed in the first place. Absolutely, we understand that that the creation was created.

Good.

We if we look back at Genesis in chapter 1 We see that it says in After he created all things except for mankind. He says.

In.

Verse 25 So God made the wildlife and the earth according to their kinds the livestock according to their kinds and all creatures. The crawl on the ground according to their kind and saw that it was very good.

He then made man in his own image to look over the earth to rule over the fish of the the fish of the sea. The birds of the sky the livestock the whole earth. And the creatures that crawl on them were made in the image of God.

And then it goes down into verse 31 says God saw all that he had made and indeed it was very good now. Some people want to say that this means that Mankind the creation was good beforehand, but God made man and now it's very good.

So man is some sort of Special thing that makes everything very good. I don't think that's the case. I think what he was saying there is when God because the whole context of Genesis 1 isn't about mankind a whole context of Genesis 1 is about The way that God has created all things.

So since he's created all things and he created them all very good when he was done with his creation by Creating man to rule over the earth. It was very good because God was finished with his creation.

He was done. He had made a completed whole. That's why the creation was very good. So we put that in contrast with What we see later on in chapter 3. Chapter 3 mankind Takes the fruit that we weren't supposed to take from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil we plunge ourselves into sin.

But it wasn't just ourselves that we plunged into sin. If we look at chapter 3 verse 17 Says and he said to the man. Because you listen to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you do not eat from it.

The ground is cursed because of you. You will eat from it by means of painful labor all the days of your life. And in verse 18 It says it will produce thorns and thistles for you. See God created the world in order to glorify himself.

He created mankind to take care of the world. He placed us as his image bearers in the world to subdue the world to make everything. Basically to to show his his glory throughout all of creation have us be caretakers of that showing of glory.

So we entered into sin. We brought with us a stain upon his creation notice that it didn't curse mankind. In verse 17 it says the ground is cursed because of you. See. God's glory was supposed to be shown by us working the earth by us Subduing those parts outside of the garden that weren't created as a garden.

We were supposed to take the land and make it look like the Garden of Eden. Everywhere across the whole the whole face of the planet. To subdue it to populate it to have God's image stamped all over the globe.

Yeah.

And and you see that. Sorry to interrupt you but you see that in in Genesis chapter 1. A lot of times we just focus on the garden, but listen to the language verse 26 that Dan wrote.

I didn't write over the do what. I didn't write it. I mean it read read sorry.

Over over the cattle over all the earth so we Can leave? Yes, the garden was there. They were they were in the garden. They they walked in the garden but his his mandate was For the whole earth and then be fruitful and multiply and fill the garden.

That's not what it says. It says fill the earth and then in verse 29 then God said behold I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth not just the garden. But the whole earth.

And so we're talking about a whole earth mandate here in Genesis, right?

It's almost like he gave us a blueprint in the garden. Say go make the whole world look like this. Where. No the vegetation and the plants. Sure, but where? Relationship between God and man is. Covering the entire earth in its right state.

A relationship between God and man. Um, it was. I thought it was interesting. That the curse that came it came upon the earth and it made everything more difficult. We see in Verse 21 that God made clothing from the skins of.

From skins for man and his wife. Yeah, not. Pile up in cities. It's exactly right.

But.

What happened there is that an animal died the death hadn't occurred before then so what you see is their sin is then seen in the creation as a Part of creation died in order to clothe them to cover them.

Which is a picture of the gospel that the lamb would one day come His life would be given in order to cover our shame and nakedness our sin. It's a picture of the gospel. But what it also shows is what Adam and Eve had to have been experiencing and seeing at the time.

Because up until then they'd seen a perfect earth a perfect garden. Perfect relationship with God no sin and then sin hits. Now they see death in the next chapter. We see that they had children. There's great pain and childbearing.

They see one of their sons kill another one of their sons. They see animals begin to eat one another rip each other's flesh to see the thorns and the thistles in the ground. The entire creation that they had seen beforehand was falling apart in front of them.

They saw death and mayhem decay. Miscarriage would have happened at some point down the line. See their life was tied to the ground to the to the earth. When that was cursed Everything fell apart. So they were thinking of that promise that he would come and crush the head of the serpent.

Because they were reminded constantly because of the earth being Tainted with sin that it was cursed For their sake that they would have to struggle. Which is really interesting that the only thing that you see as a actual Representation of what was gonna happen if you look back at verse 18.

Chapter 3 verse 18. It says it will produce thorns and thistles for you and you will eat plants of the field if you remember When Jesus was on the cross He took our sins upon himself. He was crowned with the crown of thorns.

Hmm.

He was he took upon himself the sin of mankind In order to redeem all of creation to take away the curse that was placed on the earth. Those thorns and thistles that were allowed to enter into the earth at that point that the that was what?

The earth was going to give mankind. Christ Symbolically took that to himself In order to remove the curse not just from mankind, but also from the earth in general. Nothing. I Think there's some confusion on why the earth was cursed but Leviticus 18 tells us that when we sin the ground around us Almost soaks up our sin.

Let.

Leviticus speak for itself Chapter 18 verses 24 and 25 it says. Do not defile yourselves by any of these practices. He went through a whole list of sins. They're killing your children improper sexual relations.

Don't do not defile yourselves by any of these practices for the nation's. I'm driving out before you defile themselves by all these things. The land has become defiled so I'm punishing it for its iniquity and the land will vomit out its inhabitants.

So even though the land was cursed the land was kind of Still being obedient to God. It had to endure the pains of our sin, but it was still doing what God would have it to do. So we see then in if we move through the Genesis story to Noah God looked over the face of the earth and he was gonna wipe off the animals and Mankind is gonna wipe it all off and leave the earth left.

But then Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. It's a picture of baptism as we see in first Peter. That what happened? It's a picture of Christ that In the washing away of sin Christ and those who are his are Preserved through the washing of the earth.

It's Christ redemption of the entire creation. Which I think is just fantastic. Now getting because I know I went all the way around to try to get to the point that you asked before from Colossians. If we look in Romans 8 and I'm still going around I'm coming I'm coming coming for you.

If I could interject while we're going to Romans 8 Talk about the involvement of creation. It just reminds me of the numerous times in the Old Testament Where the earth and the heavens are called upon as witnesses against Israel.

So that I mean they're they're heavily the earth and the heavens are heavily involved. We're we're not we are the crown of creation. I guess you would say but True creation is not left out. Right creation is the earth and the heavens were affected by the fall.

And as you're as you're leading us to affected in.

Reconciliation, right? Yeah. And so that what the creation is doing now is Kind of what we as redeemed redeemed individuals are doing now. As redeemed individuals, we know that we stand justified before God but we We still sin and as redeemed individuals.

We hate it. We want that sin to go away. We'd long for the day when we no longer have to deal with sin and the effects of it with decay and bodies breaking down and having to deal with Fights over here and wars over there.

We want it to all go away. If we look at Romans 8 starting in verse 18 says for I consider the sufferings of this present time Are not worth comparing to the glory that is going to be revealed to us. Now.

This is all talking about salvation in Romans 8. For the creation is eagerly or eagerly waits with anticipation for God's sons to be revealed. The creation itself is awaiting for the full number of those who are going to be saved by God to be revealed.

And why is that? For creation was subjected to futility. Not willingly, but because of him who subjected it. In other words It fell under the curse of sin not because of its own doing but because we thrust sin upon the creation.

In hope that the creation itself Will also be set free from the bondage to decay and the glorious freedom of God's children that the creation would find Restoration wouldn't have to face decay anymore in the act of us as humans being redeemed.

For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together with labor pains until now. Not only that but we ourselves Who have the spirit as firstfruits we grown within ourselves eagerly awaiting adoption for the redemption of our bodies.

What the creation is doing it's awaiting its time Where it will be fully and completely Redeemed and have sin pulled away from it now point at which Postmillennialists are different is. When will that redemption take place or at least when will it start to take place?

As.

We discussed a few sessions ago. We believe that the new heavens and the new earth is.

A.

Reality that is being that has begun or been inaugurated, but we'll find its completion in the future. So when we look at the redemption of creation we look at The the the truth of what we looked at before and the new heavens in the north we go back to Isaiah 65 and then Isaiah 65.

I'm not gonna go through the whole thing Because I took a really long time to do that the first time so just Kind of go over it in in the summary form. For in 17 and 18 says for I will create a new heaven and a new earth the past events will not be remembered or.

Come to mind.

Then be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating. For I will create Jerusalem to be a joy. He's On unrolling the effects of sin. He's pulling back the decay and the destruction that is upon the earth in our salvation.

Now verses 19 through 23 we see that those are pulled back. While we're still on the earth because there's still death in those verses there's Death that's not going to happen in that the miscarriages are going to Come back and then cease.

But people will still die. Those who are Righteous will or those who are wicked will live to a hundred years old and People they'll die and people say why did he die so young? I? Don't even know if I'll make it to a hundred but people to think that is young is ridiculous.

Verse 24 we see that salvation is at the center before they even call. I will answer. While they're speaking I will hear. God is in the midst of this process. Creating all things anew his redemption is being applied to mankind and creation itself and the result is that the wolf and The lamb the wolf and the lamb will feed together and the lion will eat straw like the cattle.

But the serpents food will be dust And it will be upon it all his holy mountain.

A.

Revelation 21 show as we went over before shows us the completion of that that one day all these things will be completely Fulfilled that sin will be done away with and the result of all that we can actually see in Revelation 22 the first bits of it says.

Before we move to Revelation. You mind if I make some comments about Isaiah 65, oh, yeah, sure. Just basically what I was seeing in in Isaiah 65 and I think I think we pointed this out well when we talked about the new heavens in the new earth and We went we're in Isaiah 65.

We went to Revelation 21 and we saw Isaiah 65 is more of what's going on now. And then Revelation 21 is Mostly or some of it is the future the completion of it the glorification here we have the sanctification and there we have the glorification and We've talked about the garden.

We talked about Adam and Eve and and how They brought sin into the world because of their disobedience. But we we looked at their mandates their their creation mandates to go fill the earth subdue the earth Authority over over the earth.

And.

You know, they they messed all that up and and it became hard for them to do that. But here in Isaiah 65 where we see that the new heavens in the new earth Which you we've talked about already been argued inaugurated Beginning the sanctification of it as is taking place.

And what does that look like for us?

As.

Members of this. Being sanctified new heavens and new earth. Dan brought out the point, you know people are going to live longer. An old man who does not live out his days for the youth will die at the age of 100 and The one who does not reach the age of 100 shall be thought accursed.

I.

Really like to at some point because I heard it I've heard it talked about before. Looking at the real original language on what that meant to subdue the earth and and what what the intention was there.

Because.

If we are If we're subduing the earth we we are taking God's creation and You know, we're not just managing it but using it and and here. It may not it may not be just a you know a supernatural thing that we're what you know are the average age was You know 55 now.

It's 255 you know, maybe it's it's. We're we're understanding creation we're understanding our bodies we're understanding medicine we're understanding vitamins. All those things may be a part of this.

We're utilizing God's creation to the way it was intended to be used what to eat well not to eat. And then you go on verse 21 and they shall build houses and inhabit them and They shall also plant vineyards and eat from their fruit.

You see that happening now. Of course, you know, it's been happening for a long time people building houses and and and and inhabiting them but um the part of the curse with with Adam and Eve was that they would work and it would be difficult for them and For so so many times yeah, you had you have you've always had your elite you always said you're rich you've always said you're poor and it was easier for some than the others, but As time has gone on and as the as the new earth and new heavens as they move forward it seems as if things will will go back to Garden expectations, I guess we could say Where we're Adam his work.

And I can you know, my family has never been part of the elite class I can think to back to my grandparents my great-grandparents my great-great-grandparents and They work from Sun up to Sun down and the reason they had so many children was because they had farms and they had to have people to tend the farm and You know you go back to early Americas.

You had to keep the fire going in the house 24 7 So that you could have heat so that you could have food and somebody had to tend that did you have time to Get on Facebook if you if you were tending the fire if you were preparing the next meal you didn't have time for all those things, but as the as the new heavens and the new earth progressed as it sanctifies it seems as if We are having We're having to spend less time in the field To use that language so that we can spend more time in the spiritual Kingdom work.

And it even Isaiah 65 even kind of Speaks to that if if I'm looking at it correctly verse 22, they shall not build and Another inhabit they shall not plant and another eat. For as the lifetime of a tree so shall the days be of my people my chosen ones shall wear out the work of their hands another translation say they shall enjoy think about the garden and And leaving leaving the garden and had the work that they had to do you you will You will sweat and the work will be hard and you think about our Past generations and and the work that they had to do from Sun up to Sun down Fully dependent on the work that they did to survive To live the next day and to prepare for the winter and all the work that they had to do.

I Can't imagine it was always Joyful, but here as as we sanctify Are being sanctified in this new heavens a new earth the work that we will do It says that we we will enjoy will enjoy our work. So it's almost as if we're moving from that that curse in the garden or where it will be wholesome and and it will be hard and We're moving to where the work will be Less in the field.